Shaving the Weight

In my last Sunday Morning Coffee post I talked about a new segment I was going to start for this year. That was to document the shaving of the weight from my pack in order to go lighter and more comfortable on the trail.
The segment is going to be called 52 ways of shaving weight.. or something like that.. I’m still looking for a snazzy name. Much like the effort many online Scouters shared in the #100daystrong campaign.. anyway.. for now.. it’s 52 ways to shave weight…
Last week I ordered new stuff sacks from zpacks. They are Cubin Fiber and super light. The heavy of the 3 sacks I ordered weighs in at 5 grams that’s .2 ounces. The lightest sack is 4 grams or .1 ounces. The bag that my cook kit was in weighed 20 grams or .7 ounces. That bag has been replaced by the 5 gram bag. That is a net savings of 15 grams or .5 ounces. That may not seem like a lot of weight.. but add that up over all of your gear, an ounce here and an ounce there and you have pounds.
This week I looked at my pack.
I weighed my pack.. totally empty.
It weighs in at 4 lbs. I took every plastic stopper off of the pack and replaced them with a figure 8 knot. Serves the same purpose (to keep the line from threading through the buckles). The Pack is now at 3 lbs 15 ounces or 1798 grams. I have been looking at the optional flap storage bag that clips to the pack. While I like it for easy access, I tend to fill it with lots of small stuff. Through this process of looking at how I pack and what I pack.. I may be able to shed that part of the pack all together. That would add to the savings. The lid/pocket weighs in at 257 grams or 9.1 ounces. That would shave an additional 1541 grams off the pack. That would bring that pack total to 3.3 lbs or 54.24 ounces.
What I am finding is that “Ultralight” backpacking is more of a philosophy of thought that it is about backpacking. The philosophy dictates that you look at the process and the science if you will on what you take, how you take it, what you use it for, and yes… how much does it weigh. This does not discount safety and comfort, on the contrary.. it forces one to look at how they can be just as safe and just as comfortable while backpacking with the net result being more comfortable, fresh, and pain-free when the pack comes off.
This process forces you to have a critical eye to make decisions on the gear you choose and pack. It takes on that scientific feel as you weigh gear and make those decisions.
I found a good Excel spreadsheet online. It is designed and built from a backpacker that frequents Backpackinglight.com.
It is a great way to build your kit, look critically at the weight of all your gear and make sound decisions. I am finding it a great tool for meeting my goals in weight reduction and a fun way to track and measure my progress.
Here is a link to the gear list. If this doesn’t work, drop me an email and I will send it to you.
So I am on track to shaving that gear weight. See what you can do and let us know your progress… Also.. help me with a cooler name for the segment. Leave your suggestions in the comments section.

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One thought on “Shaving the Weight”

Nice. I went through the same process about this time last year in preparation for my first Philmont trip. As you are finding, the best thing I did was to get a scale, weigh everything and put it in a spreadsheet (acutally, I used geargrams.com). I was able to save over 10 pounds on my base weight by replacing some items and simply leaving out other items that I had initially planned to take.

Im looking forward to picking up some new tips and will share some of mine along the way.

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